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Epilogue: "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare". A note for Holly Walsh, by Thorsten Scheerer
Edited by Thorsten Scheerer. Published by Athena on http://athena.formstreng.net in August 2002. Athena e-text registration: ath-ep023/sch
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EPILOQUE: "HOW TO EXPLAIN PICTURES TO A DEAD HARE"
A note for Holly Walsh, by Thorsten Scheerer
Gallery Schmela, Düsseldorf, November 26th 1965
Holly, I have a story for you about the hare. A friend of mine, specialized in the art of Wols and currently finishing his PhD about this artist, showed me something that lets me believe that the well known performance "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare" is a kind of allusion to Wols' (non artistic) view on his first exhibition. This story is told in a book of a friend of Wols - let me translate it for you:
Wols had a dog. On the first day of his exhibition of drawings in a gallery he took the dog on his arm and showed him every picture. He explained each and everyone of them briefly to the dog and reminded it how much it helped him creating these works of art, because in the cold winter the warmth of its belly defrosted the frozen ink Wols needed to draw. Later on Wols made a not: "My yellow dog … told me: Your paintings are stupid".*
 | It is very likely that Beuys knew the works of Wols. And it is surely possible that Beuys knew the book in which this story is told. This provides a funny view on Beuys performance and it would very well represent Beuys' "Gangster style". | |
Promotion poster for the Video "Dillinger", 1974 |
* taken from: Henri-Pierre Roché: Erinnerungen an Wols, in: Werner Haftman (editor): Wols - Aufzeichnungen, Aquarelle, Aphorismen, Zeichnungen, Cologne 1963, p. 44 - 49